Pubs face "naming and shaming" in yellow card/red card scheme

Pubs falling foul of the licensing laws could be forced to display a yellow card in their window and be subject to a range of harsh measures following new guidance from the Home Office.

Other sanctions could include asking a pub's personal licence-holder or DPS to supervise every individual sale of alcohol on a premises, and requiring alcohol sales to be made only by people aged 25 or over.

The new guidance forms part of the new yellow card/red card proposals announced earlier this year, which will see pubs handed a yellow card after one review - and a red card, and the withdrawl of their licence, after a second.

The guidance is being communicated to local authorities via a series of seminars over the next two months.

In a letter to council chief executives licensing minster Gerry Sutcliffe said the new guidance was being circulated as powers under the Licensing Act 2003 were not being consistently well used accross the country.

The minister says in the letter: "Both the police observations as part of the campaign to tackles sales to drunks (last December) and the recent KPMG review of the industry social responsible standards identified a number of premises which were not only breaking the law but also represented high risks in relation to several of the licensing objectives.

"Some of those would appear to be exactly the kinds of premises where a yellow card backed up by tough conditions might be appropriate."

But Dr Martin Rawlings, director of pub and leisure at the British Beer & Pub Association, said the new measures were totally over the top.

"The government has seen a failure of enforcement and it is trying to punish the people who are being enforced against," he said.

"Within this whole debate there is never any mention of intent. You can end up with a yellow card over a simple mistake. It should be clear that there is an intent to break the law before any action is taken."